Primary Navigation

Site Search

Main Content

Pre-conference Workshop: The Hard Work of Soft Skills

About the Talk

April 23, 2015 9:00 AM

Minneapolis, MN

Minneapolis, MN

No IA is an island.

Same goes for designers, content strategists and every other flavor of user experience professional. Great talent and the work a great talent produces is wasted if that individual has not developed the skills to present their work to a critical audience, explain their thoughts to other team members, and push solutions through unforgiving (and often dysfunctional) organizations.

This workshop has been designed to give you what you need to excel in any environment. It intertwines lecture, discussion and exercises to help you master techniques for group facilitation, interpersonal communication and personal leadership. We will show you how to analyze organizations from the inside and how to develop and manage complex social relationships. We will leverage the instructors’ more than 50 years of combined experience (Jared Spool’s primarily as an external consultant and Dan Willis’ primarily as an internal manager.)

This workshop offers value for people in all stages of development. For newbies, it is an introduction; for those in mid-career, it is a deeper exploration; for wily veterans, it is a chance to sharpen and strengthen existing skills.

Are you sick of your best ideas disappearing into the darkness of an organizational abyss? If so, please consider attending this workshop to get your brilliant work off the drawing board and into the real world.

Session Takeaways
Participants will master key group facilitation techniques. They will improve their communication skills, both one-on-one and within groups. They will be able to describe their strengths as a leader. They will have the tools to analyze their own organizations in order to more successfully garner support for their work. Finally, they will have a greater understanding of how to develop and manage the complex social relationships essential to their success.